School Has Trouble Spelling 'School'

Attenshun, streat crossang gards adn teechers and stoo-dents, and, peeple who paynte street sines. Spelling is still very important! Not doing it properly, or at least double-checking your work before it goes down semi-permanently in the asphalt, makes you look stooooopid. Hence, the mockery that has been heaped upon the Lower East Side's own Marta Valle High School, which features, on nearby Stanton Street, the designation "SHCOOL X-NG." It has been there for months, reports the New York Post. Monfs!

However could such a grotesque thing occur? Construction crews worked on the street over the summer, and, apparently, dug into the road and then replaced the markings improperly, which students and administrators either failed to notice or didn't bother to report. To some, this is a message of how low American society has come.

"It's sad," said Derek Pacheco, a Flushing securities-industry worker who passes by on his way to work. "It speaks volumes about the dumbing down of American culture."

To others, it is amusing. There's no "cool" in school, you say?

A DOT spokesman said the mistake was made by a utility provider, not the city or a city contractor (who have, in their own day, been known to make a mistake, too -- remember "Bleeker"?). But at any rate, it will be fixed, and, in the meantime, everyone can blame the school for not catching the humiliating mistake.

This is why we can't have nice, properly spelled things! Though, in fairness, this has happened before, at other shcools. If it's any consolation, Florida did it worse.